Does the Average Human Consume Four Spiders per Year While Sleeping?

in life •  6 years ago 

NO! In fact, it’s unlikely that a spider would let itself get swallowed by a person. To get swallowed, a spider would have to climb or fall into person’s mouth. And a spider sense of self-preservation its will to live would keep it from climbing in.
If a spider happened to crawl near a sleeping human’s mouth, the spider would hear breathing. To a spider, that’s the sound of an enemy. Its instinct would be to flee, not to climb in. But could a spider fall into a sleeping person’s mouth? Not likely. Adult spiders just don’t fall that often. However-and maybe this is where the myth comes from baby spiders do fall, or float, through the air when they hatch out of their egg sac. In fact, when one spider egg sac hatches, hundreds of too-small-to-see baby spiders get thrown into the air. They ride the air current to wherever they land.

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Sure, some of these baby spider might land in the mouth of a sleeping person. And they might get swallowed. But the chance of an egg sac happening to hatch near a sleeping person is pretty slim. And the chance of the sleeping person’s mouth being open and facing upward isn’t all that great either. So while it’s possible it’s highly unlikely that the average person swallows four spider per year. Plus does it count if the spider is too small to see.

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